December 8, 2015

One of the best parts of teaching in the Primary Grades during the Holiday season is definitely the awesome books that correlate with the time of year! I use many different books in my classroom and with my after school Reading club for Kindergarten students. Some of my favorite books are The Hat and The Mitten by Jan Brett and The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. I've created some activities to extend higher level thinking and comprehension strategies with the three stories. Take a look below!

First, discuss if each story is Fiction or Nonfiction. Review what characterizes a story as either of the things and then have the students prove it to you!

Then, your students can sort photographs between "The Hat" and "The Mitten". Students may find these stories very similar because of the text patterns and illustrations, so together you can discuss the differences.

Make retelling "The Mitten" fun by having your students create their own mittens and putting the order of the characters into the mitten they created!

Finally, review character and setting with your students by creating a specific scene from the story "The Hat!"

Here is all about one of my ALL time favorite stories "The Polar Express" and how I extend learning in my classroom!